Disable NetBIOS

[ajbritton]

As I'm sure many of you are aware, it's possible to completely dump NetBIOS these days. I've never done it before but am considering doing so now. The site for which I'm considering this move is configured as follows...

 

Single forest

- Forest root domain (Admin) has single DC running Windows 2000

- Additional domain (Curric) has dual DCs running Windows 2003

DNS infrastructure all in place and working correctly

All PCs are Windows XP SP2

 

Can anyone think of any good reasons to keep NetBIOS?

[vikpaw]

the only reason i can think of at the moment is if you use SIMs FMS module for finance.

 

once that is moved over to SIMs .Net proper it shouldn't be needed.

 

i've just discovered a lot of netbios multicast traffic around the admin switch and have narrowed it down to the 4 machines that use FMS.

 

i need to play around with limiting the traffic as it's really slowing down that segment of the network, if anyone has any ideas i'd be greatful.

 

so, to answer your question, netbios is going to be useful where you are running, old and proprietary apps, other than that i guess it's defunct.

[Oops_my_bad]

We disabled netbios ages ago, didnt know about the FMS thing but ours still works and it's quite an archaic version (must get round to updating it)

[vikpaw]

part of the FMS install is to choose a comms protocol, we were always told to select either netbios or "all protocols", i'll try installing on a test machine without netbios and see if it still works. it will probably just take longer but may overall could ease the network load....

[DMcCoy]

part of the FMS install is to choose a comms protocol, we were always told to select either netbios or "all protocols", i'll try installing on a test machine without netbios and see if it still works. it will probably just take longer but may overall could ease the network load....

 

FMS will work with IP only, you can also configure it to work without broadcasts by altering the odbc connection

 

The sql version of fms loses all these issues anyway.

[FN-GM]

What are the benefits of Disabling NetBIOS?

[Oops_my_bad]

What are the benefits of Disabling NetBIOS?

Less broadcasting and it's a beast of a protocol too

[vikpaw]

FMS will work with IP only, you can also configure it to work without broadcasts by altering the odbc connection

 

The sql version of fms loses all these issues anyway.

 

Thanks , i'll give it a try with IP only. Not sure how to alter odbc, but i'll have a closer look, i was going to just block multicasting at the switch.

Can't wait to get FMS, Nova and Cover all moved over to sql properly, but for the moment i'll just have to and bear it!

[DMcCoy]

You can add the host address of the fms server with the following registry key on the clients:

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBC.INI\SIMS32

 

My start key looks like this:

 

c:\progra~1\sqlany\win32\dbclient.exe -ta 600 -x TCPIP{HOST=10.0.6.3}

 

The "-x TCPIP{HOST=10.0.6.3}" specifies the servers name rather than finding by sending a broadcast. Useful when you had it turned off or are on a different vlan to the server

[cookie_monster]

Take a look at this link it's a good read.

 

http://www.petri.co.il/disable_netbios_in_w2k_xp_2003.htm

 

You can encounter issues with all sorts of applications so test before you try it, you can replace it with a WINS server for any apps that do require it.

[vikpaw]

@DMcCoy

Thanks, now if only there was a "thank you" button somewhere on the screen, i'd click it....